


Mom

by burgerheadjones



Category: Riverdale (TV 2017)
Genre: Foster Family, Mother's Day, Mothers Day, Sad Jughead, Six months later, serpent! jughead, the spellmans
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-14
Updated: 2017-05-14
Packaged: 2018-10-31 18:44:47
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,299
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10905234
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/burgerheadjones/pseuds/burgerheadjones
Summary: Jughead Jones doesn't know if he should call his mother on Mother's day or not.After all, didn't she turn her back on him?





	Mom

**Author's Note:**

> HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY to all the Moms, the Mamas, Ahms, Majkas, Moers, Mamis, Mares, Ammas, Okaasans, out there! Thanks for bringing light to our lives, our role models, and our support. Love you!

Jughead Jones sits on the bed of the Spellman’s second guest room, well, his room, trying to make a decision that, in any other case, wouldn't require so much thought.

But Jughead was Jughead, and he always managed to be different.

He shifts his palm over the black sheets with a thread count of 600, and puts his head back on the matching, fluffy pillows. The Spellmans may live in the South Side of Riverdale, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t well-to-do.

Jughead finds it ironic. That his Serpent jacket sits in his closet, among a variety of coats and jackets, (which, over a year ago, he wouldn’t have had) while he enjoys Eggo waffles and uses their Tresemme conditioner every morning. He knows some other Serpents resent him slightly for that, but they owe his father everything, so they keep their mouths shut.

He bites his lip.

It’s Mother’s Day.

He and Sabrina have already showered Mrs. Spellman with a Sunday Brunch, flowers, and gift coupons. Sabrina’s made the obligatory instagram post, a picture of the three of them, where Diana Spellman is looking at Jughead like he’s her own son. He’s lived with them for all of six months, and they’ve treated him like he’s a Spellman.

Even though he can’t bring himself to call his foster mother ‘mom’, he knows she’s done more for him than Gladys Jones ever has.

Despite that, Gladys Jones is still his mother, still someone who’s shaped him to be who he is today, and he’s deliberating whether to call her up. He hasn’t talked to her for a while- not since he found out that she said ‘No’ to Social Services when they asked her to take him in.

Jug closes his eyes and picks his phone up, wondering whether he should call Betty for advice.

Betty. The only entity that has been a constant factor in his life, pre-Spellman and post-Spellman. Even Archie had drifted away when he’d found out that Jughead had joined the Serpents. But the redhead soon came to his senses, and their friendship, at the moment, was going strong, albeit a few scars here and there.

Betty had never left, though. Without a doubt, they’d had their ups and downs, but Betty never failed to amaze him. She was a true blessing, Jughead thought, and would give up anything and everything for her.

As his finger hovers over her contact, he smiles at her contact picture. It’s an image of her, taken by Jug himself, with the sun setting behind her, forming a sort of halo around her golden locks. She looks ethereal, he thinks, and stares at the picture for perhaps a moment too long.

A knock on his door distracts him and forces him to look up; Sabrina, or Brie, as he calls her, is at his door. The platinum blonde of her hair shines brilliantly even though he has only a dim light on.

“Hey,” She says, folding her arms and smirking once she sees what he’s looking at.

“I thought you were making out with Harvey.” He grins, angling himself towards her.

She steps forward and slaps him lightly on the side of his head. “How do you know, beanie-baby?”

He wears his beanie less frequently these days, but the name she’d given him still sticks.

“These walls aren’t sound-proof.”

Sabrina responds by slapping him again. “After we _finished our project,_ Harvey had to go home.”

“Sure, sure.” Jughead sarcastically nods. “If your homework is sucking face.”

Sabrina grabs his phone out of his hands. “Says the hypocrite who is staring at his girlfriend’s picture.”

“Hey, I was about to call her,” He protests, snatching his phone back. His finger accidentally touches the ‘go back’ button, and his mom’s contact page opens again.

Sabrina notices and looks at him with concern on her face. She knows he hasn’t spoken to her in ages.

Sabrina and him; they’re close, just like two siblings would be. Many people in southside High automatically assumed they were dating, but that concept was so weird to Jughead, now that Sabrina had basically become his sister. He was happiest with Betty, like Brie was with Harvey, and he definitely couldn’t even think about a sort-of incestuous relationship with the thin girl beside him.

He has two sisters now- Jellybean and Brie, and while he’s often struck with pangs of sadness because he can’t see the former, he finds family in the latter.

He has two blondes in his life now, and he loves them both, although in different ways.

Sabrina puts her hand on his shoulder. “Are you going to call her?”

“I don’t know.”

“Did Betty say anything?”

“I was going to call her, remember?”

“Right.” She says, pausing for a while. “Jughead, do you want my advice?”

He looks up at her, and nods.

“Call her. Work things out. See how it goes. There’s nothing to lose, right?”

He bites his lips, realising that she’s correct, like she often is. But he’s still hesitant.

He nods and thanks her. “Maybe I shall.”

Sabrina smiles and walks off, shutting the door behind her. But Jughead needs to talk to the one voice of reason in his life- he needs the advice of his Juliet.

So he dials Betty, unsurprised when she picks up immediately.

“Hi, Jug!”

“Hey, Betts.”

She notices the dejected tone of his voice. “Is everything alright?”

“Yeah, mostly,” He says, because it's just a small dilemma he's in. “I need your advice.”

“Oh, okay, shoot,” The sweet voice encourages.

“I don't know if I should call my mom or not, since it's Mother's Day.”

“Well, what do you think’s holding you back, Jug?”

He pauses, biting his lip. “Jug, stop biting your lip.” Betty scolds him.

Guilty as accused, Jughead laughs. “How did you know?”

“My Nancy Drew senses just know.”

He leaves his lip alone after her admonishment, and replies to her question. “I know that she doesn't want me to be part of her life, Betts. You remember the day Social Services told me that she turned them, and me down?”

“Yeah, Jug.”

“And that time, after homecoming, when I called her in that phone booth?”

Betty hums in response.

“Well, I felt like the least wanted person on earth. She lives in a house with four bedrooms, three couches, and a basement, but yet, she told me there wasn't space. Least she could do is make up a better excuse. But, she's still my mom, and despite what I say, I love her. I'll never stop.”

Betty stays silent, like she has nothing to say. Or, more accurately, she’s trying to word her thoughts.

“Jughead,” She says softly, after a minute, “I never told you this, but my mom collapsed, one day, in the grocery aisle, when I was eleven. I was pissed off with her, at that time, over something I can’t even remember, so I was giving her the silent treatment and wandered off to different aisle to stay away and infuriate her.”

It’s Jughead’s turn to hum reassuringly.

“She collapsed because something was wrong with her uterus- she was bleeding internally and hadn’t realised. Suddenly, there was an ambulance, the paramedics, the neighbourhood, wondering what the emergency was. I rode with my mom on the way to the hospital, watched as they scrambled to save her life, and couldn’t help but hate myself for being angry at her. She was dying, and there I was, thinking that her last memories of me were anything but pleasant.”

Jughead listens to Betty as she takes a deep breath.

“They had to remove her uterus, but she survived, and that was like our second chance. So, Jug, don’t waste this opportunity. It’s Mother’s day, after all, and no one can ever stop you from loving your own mother.”

Jughead previously wasn't aware of this incident, because he knows it took place during his stint at juvie. But Betty's advice makes complete sense, and he thinks it's the right thing to do.

“Thanks for sharing, Betts, I appreciate it.”

“You know I love you, no matter what, right?”

“I always will, Betty. Love you.” He smiles fondly. He knows what to do.

Cutting the call a moment later, he stares at Gladys Jones’ contact again. It has no assigned picture.

Taking a steadying breath, he presses the call button.

It takes a while for her to pick up, unlike Betty. He fiddles with his hair, no longer under a beanie for this vulnerable moment, and taps his foot. He almost gives up and cuts the call. Before he can, though-

“Jughead?”

Jughead bites his lip and catches himself doing it, stopping immediately. “Mom.”

“Hi, honey.”

A swell of anger courses through him; honey? But he bites it back down and swallows.

“How are you?” His low voice is gravelly.

“Jughead...” Affection and love is in her voice, and Jughead’s taken aback. “I’m great.”

I _f you were great, I would’ve known._ But Jughead can’t say that, so an awkward silence passes. Downstairs, Diana yells loudly. “Jughead, Brie, dinner’s ready!”

Jughead angles his head and yells back, away from the receiver. “Coming, in a second!”

His mom hears this. “Is that... the foster mother?”

“Yes. They’re the Spellmans.”

“Are they treating you well?”

Jughead can’t help it. His mean and snarky side is coming out. “Better than you did, Mom. Better than you treated Dad after he was arrested, better than you treated me when I had no one else to turn to. _Much better._ ”

It was true, so true, and it would hurt her. But the truth is painful, as painful as the suffering Jughead went through six months prior, and he knows his mother probably doesn’t deserve this, but he can’t help it. Gladys kept him away from Jellybean. She turned him away, turned her back on her husband and son, and hurt Jughead in ways more than one. He can hear her gasp softly after she hears this.

“Jughead...”

“Stop saying my name like that! Mom, when Dad got arrested, I thought I could turn to you! And the worst part is, Social Services told me that you said no. I didn’t hear it from you.” His eyes are watering up, and he sniffs.  
Evidently, Gladys was crying too, and now, Jughead feels awful because he made his mother cry. So he backtracks.

“I’m sorry, forget I said anything, sorry, mom.” He sniffs, voice breaking.

 “No, Jughead, I’m the one who should be sorry, honey. I’m the one that left, and I hate myself because I couldn’t take you in. I’m so sorry, honey, I owe everything in the world to you.”

Jughead’s tears stream down his cheek now, red rimmed eyes closing for a second. “Why couldn’t you? Take me in?”

“I can’t tell you, Jug.” She sobs from the other side of the line.

Jughead doesn’t say anything, and runs a hand through his hair. He sniffs loudly.

“Juggie-”

“No. It’s fine. Hap-” But he’s interrupted this time.

“I was afraid that you’d turn into your father.”

His heart is ripped in half; does she really detest FP so much that she wants to eradicate all reminders of him from her life? He turns and stares daggers into the white door that opened to his cupboard; his Serpent jacket hangs there, one of the few things that tie him and his dad together.

“Is that such a bad thing, mom?” He whispers.

“Your dad,” Gladys takes an uneven breath, “Is an alcoholic who got involved with things he shouldn’t have, Jug. Neither should you.”

“That’s false, mom. I visit Dad twice a week, every Wednesday and Sunday, and not once has he failed to tell me he’s sorry. He’s not an alcoholic anymore- he hadn’t drunk for weeks before his arrest. You have to have faith, mom.”

“I’d lost all faith when he turned up drunk after quitting his sixth job that month and nearly hit us, Jug.”

Jughead brings a hand up to wipe away a tear that’s clung to his dark eyelashes. “He’s changed. He’s a different man now, and I’m proud to have him as a father. He went to jail for me, mom, and if that doesn’t speak volumes about the man he is now, then I don’t know how to convince you.”

“Well, then, it can’t be helped, Jug,” Gladys says softly, with an air of finality.

Jughead’s breath is becoming uneven. His door opens, with Diana standing in the doorway, concern written all over her face. “Jughead, is everything okay?”

He turns away from her, not wanting her to see him cry. “I’m on the phone, Mrs. Spellman, I’m alright.”

He focuses on his actual mother. “Happy Mother’s day, Mom.” He whispers, thumbing floating over the ‘hang-up’ sign.

“Tell Mrs. Spellman that she’s already a wonderful mother to you, Jughead. I’ll miss you.” she hangs up first.

That’s it. It’s over. He’s probably never going to talk to her again. She doesn’t want to share her life with him, she doesn’t want to return, and that confirmation does nothing but create a shallow pit where his heart is.

Jughead wipes away another tear and turns back to Mrs. spellman. “I’ll be right down, Mrs-”

She steps forward and hugs him. It’s a full hug, which envelopes Jughead, and he’s taken aback.

He leans into the embrace, and this is one of the first times he isn’t awkward with her at all.

He has a family now. He has Betty, Archie, Hotdog, his father, Jellybean, and finally, the Spellmans- all three of them, including their cat, Salem. He’s happier here, and he’s so, so grateful.

“Happy mother’s day, _mom._ ” He says to Mrs. Spellman.

She beams at him, and hugs him tighter.


End file.
